The present invention relates to industrial computer systems and in particular to an industrial computer system having a removeable equipment drawer for providing ready accessibility to all major system components, except for the monitor.
Industrial computer systems to which the present invention relates, are specially designed and constructed to operate in harsh environments, such as on the plant floors of manufacturing facilities. Typical applications include controlling, reporting, and monitoring of the activities of plant floor production and process equipment. To operate in such real world manufacturing environments, industrial computer systems must meet special environmental specifications relating to temperature, shock, vibration, humidity, and voltage isolation. In order to meet such specifications, all of the components of a conventional computer system (except for the keyboard) are typically integrally packaged in a single enclosure. In other words, the video monitor, printed circuit boards, disk drives, power supply, backplanes, cabling, etc. are all located in a single enclosure. Packaging of this type, however, tends to compromise the serviceability of the product. In particular, the integral packaging configuration of a typical industrial computer makes accessibility to components difficult and inconvenient, especially when the unit is mounted in a rack containing a plurality of units or panel mounted in a sealed enclosure, which are common industry installation configurations. Under such circumstances, the performance of routine tasks such as the replacement of faulty components, the addition or upgrading of computer cards, or the altering of switch settings on a card, becomes relatively time consuming, which can be particularly disadvantageous when the operation of a manufacturing process is jeopardized or interrupted during such downtime.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide an improved industrial computer system that satisfies all of the special environmental specifications required for operation on a plant floor, and yet provides convenient serviceability.
In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved industrial computer system that is integrally packaged in a single unit and includes a readily accessible and removeable equipment drawer that contains all of the major service components of the unit.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved industrial computer system having an equipment drawer containing the computer cards, disk drives, and power supply for the unit, thereby eliminating the need for lengthy cables and avoiding potential connection problems.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved industrial computer system having an equipment drawer that is automatically electrically connected when fully inserted into the unit.
Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved industrial computer system having an equipment drawer that is easily and quickly replaceable so that a faulty unit can be serviced off-line, thereby minimizing the downtime of the unit.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment which makes reference to the drawings in which: